DARK FADER – CUSTOMIZING
Dark Fader already works well with the factory settings.
If you still want to customize your Dark Fader, you can
use the setup mode to modify the fader characteristics.
To active the setup mode you must press and hold a
dedicated button during power on (USB connection).
Once in setup mode, the pitch fader is used as an input
parameter to select minimum (lowest position) or
maximum (highest position) or any value in between.
As soon you release the setup button the fader position
defines the new value.
Any changes in setup get stored permanently and will be
used each time you connect Dark Fader again (similar to
the last used midi channel).
If you want to customize several values you have to enter
the setup mode for each value separately.
CALIBRATE PITCH FADER MID POSITION
A calibrated pitch fader should switch on the LED to green at the mid (zero) position of the pitch scale. If
your fader switches to green above or below you can calibrate the mid again. In older Technics SL days
you may remember that you had to open the chassis and readjust a trimpot. Dark Fader allows a new
calibration much more easily. Use the procedure below to calibrate the exact mid position and the new
position gets stored permanently. You can repeat the procedure as often you want:
§Disconnect Dark Fader (Power off)
§Press and hold MIDI CHANNEL button (on top)
§Connect (power on) Dark Fader via USB IN, the fader LED gets green on
§Move pitch fader position to exact mid of pitch scale
§Release button, fader LED flashes green 5 times to confirm a successful calibration
§Done, new Dark Fader mid position is stored permanently.
CUSTOMIZE PITCH FADER MID RANGE SIZE
The fader LED switches to green when close to the zero zones. You can define how large this zone
should be. A huge zone has pros and cons. Pro’s: easy to find pitch zero position (without using pitch
reset), Con’s: increasing of the dead area close mid position. Dark Fader allows you to define your
favourite behaviour: large range (similar the old ‘click’ versions in SL-1200mk2), or even smaller areas.
Friends of the SL1200mk3 may want to remove the dead area at all, using the pitch knob only to reset
the pitch and get the LED green. Dark Fader allows all these behaviours.
Define you favourite behaviour once, it gets stored permanently (until you calibrate again):
§Disconnect Dark Fader (Power off)
§Press and hold LEFT button (left below fader)
§Connect (power on) Dark Fader via USB IN, the fader LED gets off
§Use the pitch fader position to define size of range. Lowest end: remove dead zone completely,
highest position: define a large green range. Default is mid position (small green area). You can use
any fader position between to define your favourite range size
§Release button, fader LED flashes red > green > red to confirm a successful calibration
§Done, new Dark Fader mid range size is stored permanently.
CUSTOMIZE THE SENSITIVITY FOR SMALL MOVEMENTS OF PITCH FADER
The pitch fader is an analogue element. Dark Fader uses a high 14bit resolution to create a 14bit midi
pitchbend command, much higher than most other DJ controllers can offer. But 14bit on 100mm means
that noise would produce ghost midi commands even if you do not touch the pitch fader. So we
integrated an intelligent noise reduction algorithm to keep still the high resolution on the movements,
but avoid self fired ghost midi messages.
You can calibrate the noise reduction level that works best for you. Dark Fader easily shows you if your
noise reduction level works well: Normally the fader LED is switched off. As soon you move the fader
you see the red LED flashing, each flash means a midi message has been sent. Sometimes you may see
a short red flash even if you do not touch the fader. This is absolutely ok and indicates that Dark Fader
works in highest resolution. In case the red LED is flashing more often (e.g. each second) then you
should set the noise reduction higher. Or explaining the other way around: If you feel that small
movements with your finger do still not fire any messages then you should calibrate your fader to be
more sensitive, which means reducing the noise reduction.
Define you favourite sensitivity of the fader during setup (check the behaviour later in normal mode):
§Disconnect Dark Fader (Power off)
§Press and hold SHIFT button (on bottom)
§Connect (power on) Dark Fader via USB IN, the fader LED gets red on
§Use the pitch fader position to define the level of noise reduction. Lowest end: no noise reduction at
all, you will see later that the fader always fires midi messages (LED red). Highest position: define
maximum noise reduction, no ghost messages at all, but your fader does not react on small
www.dark-controller.com
© 2019-08-04
